As one of South Africa's most prominent providers of IT services to both the public and private sectors, Gijima recently took the decision to move its internal virtualised environment over to Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012, carrying with it several mission-critical SAP-enabled workloads.

The decision was motivated by the rising cost of VMware software licensing within critical virtualised environments. Furthermore, as a Microsoft Certified Partner, Gijima felt a strong need to move towards a more unified environment that better represented its strategic alignment.

"The availability of a reliable and cost-effective virtualised environment is absolutely critical to daily efforts at Gijima. Over time, the cost of VMware licensing had begun to increase and this was impacting our bottom line. In response, we began to investigate possible alternatives within the Microsoft product stable. As a strategic partner, this made good business sense," comments Paul Van Niekerk – Group Manager: Information Management, Gijima.

In March 2012, Gijima embarked on a move from its traditional virtualised platform to a better suited solution spearheaded by Micosoft's Hyper-V Server technology.

"We effectively provisioned an entirely new environment. Following this, we replicated our database within a fresh SQL cluster. The whole process was seamless. I can attribute this to having assembled a strong team of Microsoft, Information Management and SAP specialists that were able to address obstacles as they presented themselves. Ensuring that we had the right people in place beforehand was certainly the biggest challenge."

To date, Gijima has enjoyed several benefits associated with a Microsoft equipped virtualised server environment.

"Our move to Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 enabled us to significantly reduce the licensing costs associated with running a virtualised environment. Furthermore, the roadmap we implemented has allowed us to consolidate our platforms into a centrally managed database cluster," comments Van Niekerk.

This implementation highlights the importance of a strong partner-based agreement within the Microsoft environment, said Leon Wright, Server and Tools Business Lead at Microsoft SA.

"We've always worked closely with Gijima and are extremely satisfied to have supported them in this migration. Naturally, it is important to practice what you preach. Gijima's introduction of a Microsoft-based platform to its virtualised environment is a great example of this attitude. We look forward to supporting them in future."